The PSN Store that we’ve come to hate so much is finally getting a glorious make-over. Coming April 17th will be a full redesigned layout that will actually be native to the PS3 and not browser based which means being able to locate items a lot faster than before. No more PSN releases will be happening until the new store is released on the 17th. Expect some new titles on that day to get the store rolling again.
The first expansion pack for PixelJunk Monsters will be arriving in the month of April and will be giving you 15 new maps and 5 new songs to eat your PJM heart out with. Along with those 15 new maps will also be the option to have the ice tower right from the get go and also a reduced priced tesla tower which will only cost 10 gems now. My wife and I being very strong PJM fans are very siked to see that Q-Games hasn’t forgot about PJM. No release date or price has been announced but PJM:E is speculated to release along side the new PSN store which will be available on April 17th. While your waiting for April 17t to roll around check out the new video below.
I’m not going to take the time to review the movie, I just want to talk about the alternate ending.
The blu-ray cases states: ” Includes Alternate Theatrical version with Controversial ending.” Is it really controversial? Read on.
Most times you see ‘alternate ending’ listed on a dvd case it’s normally a few lines of dialog or a few added shots, usually nothing exciting. Then there are the films that have an ending so drastically different you wonder what the heck happened? ‘I am Legend’ falls between those. Normally alternate endings are the result of a studio forcing a director to change his vision, maybe opting for a ‘happy’ ending that leaves room for a sequel, or poor test screenings require the ending to be tweaked. I’m the first person to cry foul when a movie opts for the happy family ending, with everything wrapped up nicely and everyone riding into the sunset. Oddly enough this ending does that- and I prefer it.
The ending in theaters was after Will Smith secures the safety of the woman and child he sees a butterfly in the cracks of the glass door about to give in from the vampires, and unpins a grenade, ending his life and the lives of the lead vampire and others. (In Hollywood when all else fails just blow it up, it worked for Jaws how many times?) The woman and child make their way to Vermont and a voiceover lets us know that Will Smith was a hero, blah, blah, etc.
SO, the alternate ending begins right after he secures the woman and child through the small hatch door. The lead vampire smears his slimy hands on the glass door in the shape of a butterfly, we hear Wills daughter, and Will lifts the edge of the woman vampires shoulder to reveal a butterfly tattoo. With no sound, he unhooks everything from his test patient and has the woman open the door. He slowly wheels the gurney right up to the lead vampire, having his face mere inches from the creature. (resulting in a sense of fear that was never achieved in the theatrical) He reaches for a syringe to revive her and the other vampires swarm around him but are quickly called off by the lead. He injects her, she opens her eyes, and there is somewhat of a romantic moment, if you can call it that, between the lead vamp and his woman. (It sounds crazy, but in context with the rest of the film it’s actually somewhat touching) The lead vamp nuzzles his woman and carries her off, and the vamps all leave.
Will is left standing, with his wall of test patient pictures lining the wall behind him and we see him as the vamps must have seen him…..like a serial killer with his wall of fame proudly displayed…a nicely done reversal. Then they all load up in the family station wagon and head to Vermont, leaving us with some more cool NY in decay shots and a new recording playing on the radio.
So was it controversial in any way? Nope, just gimmick marketing for what I felt was a better ending.
It is official “Patriots and Tyrants” is the last episode of Jericho we will ever see. Jericho was given a second chance because the fans just wanted more but that second chance is up and it’s time to move on. Luckily I was never really attached to Jericho the way I am with LOST so I’m not too sad to see it go. I just have nothing to watch on Tuesdays now. As for the season finale, it was a good season finale. They did a good job tying up the loose ends in the short time they were given and still kept it up in the air in case the show did awesome and returned for a 3rd season but as we now know, that isn’t going to happen, at least not on CBS. “Patriots and Tyrants” was an interesting episode but nothing that blew me away. It did what it came to do and that was end the season. Hats off to the crew behind Jericho. Check out the full episode here. SCORE: 8/10
My new favorite band…Vampire Weekend. The Police meet Elvis Costello meet Paul Simon.
Make sure you check out the full album titled “Vampire Weekend” available on iTunes.
Song download suggestions:
“A-Punk”
“M79″
“Bryn”
“One (Blake’s got a New Face)”
“Walcott”
“The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance”
…basically the whole entire CD will do.
Listen to their whole SXSW ‘08 concert here.
Matthew 27:29
“…and then they twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head.”
Happy Easter from the YNFVGB Family
I was very excited for last night’s episode because I wanted to see exactly what happened to Michael all of this time. I have to admit I was a little let down. I was hoping it would start from where we last saw him (leaving the island on the little boat) and the whole process it took to get him here. While we saw most of it, it was all very predictable which isn’t like Lost. I expected some crazy stuff to be going on but instead we got a story that we all could have guessed. Michael is disappointed in what he did on the island and so he told Walt, therefore Walt is mad at him. Michael wants to kill himself but the island won’t let him. I predicted that was the case before it was ever made clear. What’s the deal with Tom being gay? That wasn’t necessary. Anyways, I thought it was wrong how Sayid turned Michael in at the end. I know the guy messed up by killing two innocent people but at least he is making an effort to sabotage the boat to save everyone else. Oh well. Lastly, I heard talk before this episode that there was some “huge cliff-hanger” at the end of it and again I was disappointed. It was pretty lame. SCORE: 7.0/10
Kurt’s Side:
Another lame episode! Ouch. I’m starting to think I should have waited until the dvd came out like the other season because this shows has become very inconsistent, and more easily forgivable when you sit and watch 4+ episodes at a time: they all blend together. With this 5 week break we will then see the ‘new’ episodes that were done post-writers strike. Hopefully having to condense more into less makes the remaining episodes better. I agree with Pat- who needed to know Mr. Friendly was gay? Don’t care much about Walt/Michael, it’s been to long. Is our cavewoman really dead? 
SCORE: 6.0/10
The other day I picked up Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and forced my wife to sie down and play it with me. We played through all of Army of Two together and she loved it so I thought she should give Vegas a try. Even thought it is a little more advanced she caught on right away and was killing baddies before I even got to them. While we were playing we experienced some slowdown, when I would move my vision would get blurry like everything was going slower. My wife said she experienced some as well. Another frustrating thing for me was the graphics. I felt like they weren’t as good as the previous Vegas so I went back and popped Vegas 1 in and couldn’t see much of a difference. I had talked with Kurt about it and he said he was experiencing the same things as well. The next day when I played it I didn’t experience any slowdown and the graphics looked great. I’m not sure what was going on that first day. Anyways, the game is amazing. I love the Vegas franchise and am very excited to play this game through a couple times. Even though this is basically the same game as Vegas 1 I find myself going at it a different way. I’m not really utilizing the AI teammates as much as I should be. I blame that on playing the game cooperatively as there really is no need for the teammates. I also want to thank Ubi for adding the 4 player co-op story mode but I’m mad that you can’t do a split-screen story and invite a friend. Overall it feels and controls great and I highly recommend this game to any shooter fan. I haven’t gotten very far yet but check back later for my full thoughts when I finish the game.
I played Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds with my wife the other night. I used to play 1 and 2 a lot and even got my family really into it. My Dad even became addicted and played pretty much everyday. Since I didn’t own a PS2 I didn’t get into 3 or 4 but once the PSP came out Hot Shots Golf was the first game I bought. That game was perfect for the PSP. Now we have Hot Shots 5 and since I own a PS3 and don’t have many games for it I decided to pick it up to relive one of my favorite pastimes. Initially I could see how people who haven’t played HS up until now would find it annoying and kiddish but to me it just brought back good memories. I love all the quirky characters and the funny noises. I’m not sure if my wife agrees though. She didn’t seem to like it as much as I had hoped and said she would play it “every once in a while.” Thank goodness for the online play. I didn’t have time to try it out but I can’t wait to. Overall Hot Shots 5 is fun with people. I don’t recommend playing it alone against the computer as it is definitely a game to be enjoyed with others. Come back later for my final thoughts on the game once I delve deeper into the core.
Last week I said I was hopefully going to be announcing some great news, and here it is: Solo artist and lead singer for the Verve Pipe, Brian Vander Ark is coming to town! Monday September 8th, Brian will be rocking Middle Taylor Township! I’m still working on the exact venue, probably at the picnic grounds down the street from my home since my yard isn’t big enough, so we can enjoy the weather and make it a big block party…are there blocks in Middle Taylor? There will be more information shortly, a flyer,a facebook event group, etc. We’re also looking at having the show recorded as a live ‘bootleg’ album as well.
Come out and enjoy some great music, great food, and great friends! After the show Brian will be hanging around for photos and autographs and whatever else. MORE SOON!
And so continues my love/hate relationship with Jericho. Last episode was the best of the season, this episode just wasn’t that great. First of all I really think Stanley was stupid for shooting Goetz. I think everyone agrees on that one. Next we have Jake taking the blame and being locked up. Beck is trying to restore order and I believe he is truly a nice guy but Jake has to cause this unnecessary revolution to happen. I feel like this revolution has no point. Also they were trying to make Jake’s “punishment” really intense but it did nothing for me. The whole show feels neutral to me. Yes Jake was locked up for defending Stanley and yes he looked pretty messed up but I honestly didn’t care. All I saw was Jake going out of his mind for no reason just because he was locked up a few days. I don’t know, I think the writers get lost trying to make it so intense. However it was interesting that the guy that was speaking with Hawkins on the phone was actually the person who planned the attacks. Next weeks episode does look interesting I just hope they don’t mess it up. At least we have answers in this show unlike Lost. That’s probably the only good thing about it besides the one or two episodes worth watching. Check out the full episode here. Score 6.5/10
Hey kids, grab your PSP’s and head over to the nearest wi-fi spot if not your own house and download the latest firmware update for PSP. Update 3.93 adds 20 new stations to the PSP Radio and “expands support for PSN titles.” I’m curious which titles are included in that expansion and will be trying out all my PSN games tonight to try to get some kind of list going. Everyday Shooter on PSP anyone? Feel free to comment down below if you happen to know any additional information.
Another comic for the Mass Effect junkies out there. Brought to us by YNFVGB faithful, Yuoma.
Mass Efflirt 2 by ~yuoma on deviantART
My wife and I just finished Army of Two on Friday night. I am very glad I decided to pick it up last minute. Sometimes I rely on reviews too much but after seeing a gameplay video of this one I was willing to take a risk. I am very satisfied with my decision and my wife agrees with me that this game is awesome. We had a great time with it. As I wrote in my initial thoughts of the game, the visuals were sweet. The cut-scenes were top-notch, better than any I’ve seen thus far. I also really like when games are bright, that is one thing that really makes me enjoy a game and all of AoT’s levels were nice and bright. I don’t enjoy games that are dark and dreary and AoT keeps that to a minimum if any at all. Overall it’s a great looking game. It’s hard to believe but, the story was actually interesting. I’m not one to follow game stories closely but this one pulled me in enough to care. At one point I thought it would be cool if one of the two playable characters was in on it and you had to fight each other at the end. I thought that would have been an amazing twist, I’m just not sure how they could have pulled it off. The length of the game is perfect even though I never really did want it to end. We haven’t gotten a chance to try the online modes yet but we will eventually. I highly recommend this game to anyone who specifically knows someone they could play it with. This game goes right along with my other favorite sleeper hits. SCORE: 9/10
Winning four Oscars this year including Best Picture and Best Direction, ‘No Country for Old Men’ arrives on blu-ray with one of the sharpest transfers I have seen. Shot in the deserts of Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas the film often has a three dimensional look to it as if you were seriously there. I’m not going to try to explain the film, because in all honesty it makes little sense upon an initial viewing. It’s a film that has no resolution, no closure, no explanations, and if that type of movie (Cloverfield) drives you nuts you better skip this one. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an interesting film, very enthralling-yet very violent. I personally was rooting for ‘Atonement’ which I’ll be reviewing shortly. Rent It.
‘Dan in Real Life’ is a gem. A great ensemble piece that that doesn’t make Steve Carell the lone star holding the weight of the film. Juliette Binoche of the Polish ‘Colors’ Trilogy and comedian Dane Cook are both great in their roles. For me this film joins ‘Last Kiss’, ‘Garden State’, and ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ as my favorite honest comedic relationship dramas. The film is AWKWARD, but that’s what makes it so honest. The picture quality on this blu-ray disc is stunning. The ocean side scenes are incredibly sharp, as are the interiors set in a very rustic wood cabin. There aren’t any large scale special effect shots, or elaborate camerawork, but everything about the production is very clear, clean, and detailed in this recent transfer. Reccomended.
Last night I had the privilege of seeing Joel Osteen speak at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh. Great event, inspiring, empowering, and a very positive message for everyone. With a hard rain falling on Pittsburgh, the atmosphere inside was the exact opposite. Great praise and worship team from Lakewood Texas. Incredible visual presentations that were top notch adorned the screens and were perfectly timed with what was going on. He’s a positive guy with a positive message and it’s contagious.
Doing some research on him he’s quite huge, his own multimedia conglomerate with over 7 million viewers a week, books, dvds, podcasts, etc. Pretty impressive. He had no dreams of being a preacher, he was into video production and for 17 years he worked behind the scenes on his fathers show (a preacher) Joel was finally moved to give his first sermon on what would be the last Sunday of his fathers life. He then took charge of his fathers congregation and grew it so much they actually bought a sports arena. He has taken some flack for being a ‘prosperity preacher’, watering down the gospel which isn’t fully deserved. Is his message fairly broad, only positive, and ‘motivational speaker’ like? Yeah. Are their crosses or other religious emblems anywhere? No. Does that lessen the impact, making it shallow or misleading? I don’t think so. If he is able to help people improve their lives and give hope them by all means keep it up. Do I wish he was more forward instead of acting like he’s afraid to offend anyone? Yeah, his appearance on Larry King was a copout. At the end of the evening he encouraged people to not stay at home and watch his show, but find a local church where they can get plugged in and realize their full potential. I think his ability to attract both evangelicals and secularists should be seen as positive because if anything he is providing a message of hope that could lead people closer to God.
I knew before the episode started that it was going to be about Sun, the question was if Jin would be involved too. It only took until the 2nd “flash-forward” to see that Jin is involved (or so we thought). He is buying a Panda for someone we think is Sun. I had a feeling since the very beginning that there was some reason they weren’t together. Following the the tradition of people being unhappy off the island I was waiting for the big reveal. All-in-all the episode was good, nothing amazing up until the big reveal and that is what I love about LOST, you always get that mind-blowing twist right towards the end that makes you realize this show is amazing. I enjoyed it, finally seeing who was the last of the “Oceanic 6.” I have to say that I don’t like Juliet to begin with and she really made me mad when she told Jin about the affair. But I guess it was for the best as neither Jin nor Sun would have gotten off of the island if it wasn’t for her. It’s funny that they revealed Michael in this episode, I sorta thought that they would just start out an episode with him or at least let him be the cliff-hanger. Because of them revealing him sooner instead of at the very end I knew that there was going to be some great twist to end this episode on. We all knew Michael was the spy since the beginning of the season and I’m glad to see him back. I can’t wait to see what he has been up to until now. I guess we’ll find out next week. SCORE: 8.5/10
Kurt’s Side:
Solid episode. Not much in the way of action or plot advancement, but we had good time spent on the island and some on the freighter. Sometimes it seems like the writers throw darts at a wall and just make stuff up, but props for the structure of this episode. I sure as heck didn’t see the timeline split coming! Sun and Jin have always sorta been just off to the side for me, straddling that line of major/minor characters, but it took this episode to make me realize how much I really liked Jin. He’s the man. Maybe I’m alone in my thinking but I really could care less if we ever saw Walt and Michael again, it’s been too long and I don’t remember a thing about either of them. Having Hurley see Sun in the forward part made me think that once they get off the island maybe the show will be ok after all. With the mini-break coming soon they need to kick it into gear!
SCORE: 8/10
In addition to Intense Debate, Kurt and I have added our Twitter accounts to the sidebar so you can now see what we are doing every minute of the day. We will update often, probably too often so if your interested just take a look up in the top right corner of the site. Also, if you have a Twitter account make sure to add us as friends (CrownOfThornz and UTurnFilms). Thanks 
This episode was great. Too great to really talk about the episode as a whole so I’m going to recap on things I’ve noticed thus far and my thoughts on the episode. Right from the beginning this episode was intense. The opening segment had me siked for the rest. One thing I noticed is Jake likes to think with his anger over anything else. He’s a great lead character but too many times we have him acting out of anger. Another thing I’ve noticed is Goetz is a jerk. They do a good job of making you hate him. Anyways, a part that really stood out for me in the episode was when Hawkins could tell something suspicious was going on and snapped that J&R guy’s neck. Hawkins rules. I also thought it was cute how Stanley was signing to Bonnie even when she was dead. That was a great scene. The way they planned out the hospital “escape” was a great idea too, I didn’t even think of that. Goetz definitely gets punked when he finds out that he was fired but it didn’t matter because Stanley puts a bullet right through his head anyways. That was kind of messed up because now Jake is going to have to take the heat for that. My prediction is Stanley will eventually stick up for his act and face the consequences. All-in-all this was the best episode of Jericho yet. It really impressed me and I wish all the episodes were that good. It’s the first episode that I was engaged throughout. Great stuff! Catch the full episode here. Only two more episodes to go! SCORE: 9.5/10
Brian Vander Ark is a musician that is so much more talented and original than anything you hear on ‘pop’ radio today, and unfortunately doesn’t get the credit he is due. Most will remember his music, but might not associate his name with tracks like the 90’s uber hit ‘The Freshman’ when he was fronting The Verve Pipe.
His third solo cd, self-titled Brian Vander Ark, is hands down the most personal and introspective of his efforts. His work as a solo artist has a different sound than the Verve Pipe, and a much more specific nature to the lyrical content. Every track is unique and intricate. The album is very well produced by Bill Szymczyk (the Eagles, the Who, Bob Seger), but far from being over produced. It is very organic and never showy for the sake of being showy. Brians vocals and beautiful lyrics are front and foremost.
The 12 track album starts off with the instrumental ‘We Heard, We Saw’ and transitions into ‘And Then We Fell’ a very layered track about September 11th. (The Verve Pipe’s last record in ‘01 had the unfortunate release date in September and despite being considered their best album, the critically acclaimed record had low sales with everyones mind being on anything but new music.)
A lot of Brian’s solo work is elegant storytelling such as ‘Lily White Way’ and ‘You’ll be the Death of Me’ is just a fun upbeat track. (“Jesus kick a cloud and let it rain down on me”) ‘Optimism’s Glow’ is a track so hard to describe I won’t even try- go listen to it. A few tracks on this album have been floating around for awhile, played at live shows, etc and one of those is ‘Evangeline’ written for Brian’s two-year old daughter. ‘Fit to be Tied’ is probably the best rock track on the album, just a great driving song-crank it up!
The song that from the beginning has stood out as my favorite has to be ‘Monday Morning Girl’ starting out slow and building to a chorus that’ll be stuck in your head as you recount the week. The album wraps with ‘We Were Never the Same’ an upbeat patriotic track that closes the album in a similar vein to the way it opened with allusions to September 11th.
All around another truly great, solid, and intimate album from Brian.
I don’t want to jinx it, but I’m working with Brian’s manager on something that could lead to something very exciting….more on that as I get more info…
(My daughter is going to be named Evangeline)
Picked up Super Smash Bros. Brawl yesterday around 11:00 am instead of midnight since the newly opened Gamestop where I pre-ordered it wasn’t having a midnight launch. I convinced my wife that this was a game worth playing so we sat down and played it together. All we really did was beat the crap out of each other the whole time. She kicked my butt about 90% of the time and I promise I wasn’t being easy on her. After we played it for a while and tried out each and every character Daria decided her character of choice would be Pit and and I decided to go with Marth even though I told her I claimed Solid Snake once we unlock him. All-in-all SSBB is just like I remember it. I’m not a die-hard fan but the game is fun none-the-less. I think all the hype made me pick it up as soon as possible though. If you’ve played the Smash Bros. franchise before then you know exactly what to expect. As for anyone who hasn’t played it…you may want to dust of your Wii for this one. Make sure you check back for my full thoughts on the game once I finish it. If you’re interested in swapping SSBB friend codes then drop me and email at ynfvgb@gmail.com.
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If you read my other posts you’ll know that I watch tv on dvd, not tv on tv. (other than ‘Lost’ which is proving to be a mixed experience)
‘Complete Series’ dvd sets can be a mixed bag, you either get a nice little package of 23 or less episodes that serve as an excellent story, or depending on how far into the series run they were canceled, a lot of unanswered questions that we’ll never find answers for. I’m proud to say that ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip’ is one of those gems that is a true joy to sit through for 23 solid episodes. While sad that we never got another season, what we did get was one of the most well directed, well acted, fully fleshed out character story arc driven series I’ve seen.
The premise of the show is the lives of an ensemble late night comedy show cast and what goes on behind the scenes and in their lives that are all so intertwined. There is a really neat show-within-a show aspect where we see the actors acting and rehearsing comedy sketches and all the logistics that go into what seems like a simple sketch..and what can go wrong. It is an intense week long process, and it seems like the writers and cast are in the studio all hours of the night pitching ideas, and timing the sketches is so much more complicated than I ever realized. It’s a fascinating look at what can go wrong in a studio system, the politics, and the frustration of always working against a clock that restarts after each live show is over. Based heavily on Saturday Night Live, everything about this show is top notch. The show is executive produced from the creator of the critically acclaimed West Wing series, and starring Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Steven Webber, and Bradley Whitford.
I was eagerly awaiting March 6th, the day when we would finally hear something about the iPhone SDK. Even though it was an event geared toward developers it still had many iPhone customers siked out of their minds. I must say, they really delivered. They discussed the SDK and showed how easily it worked, looked tempting enough for me to download it so we’ll see. Then they showed us some projects that companies had been working on in a two week time period. First they showed us EA. EA put Spore on the iPhone and it looked pretty good. Then we saw what AOL does best. They made their version of AIM for the iPhone and boy did it look sweet compared to what we’ve seen thus far. Then they showed us what SEGA had up their sleeve and that was the good ol’ Super Monkey Ball. They stated that it wasn’t some “cell phone” game, it was a full console version which is very very exciting. This is a major turning point for the iPhone and someday it may be in competition with the DS and PSP. Heck, with a screen like that it could put out some pretty good looking games. I can also see the iPhone being a cell-phone killer just as iPod has taken over the MP3 community. All of these apps will be available for purchase through the App Store that will be on your iPhone after you update it to firmware version 2.0 in June. After seeing what they have to offer I don’t mind paying for some quality apps. June can’t come soon enough! Check out the full press conference in video format here.
Bleh, that was the taste I had in my mouth after watching Lost last night. There is one person on that island that I just can’t seem to warm up to and that is Juliet. She is my least favorite character so when I found out the episode was about her I wasn’t too happy but I was willing to give it a chance. About halfway through the episode there was still nothing even worth writing about. I just don’t care about Juliet, whether they try to give her an interesting story or not. We did however find out that Penelope’s father, Charles Widmore, really wants to find the island. One of my friends actually predicted that and I just brushed her off because I thought that would be stupid. But here we find he really is a bad man and not just to Desmond. It was funny to see Ben happy in the kitchen scene as we’ve never seen him like that before. He is becoming even more weird to me after dropping the “You’re Mine!” line. That’s something I could expect from Ben though. Basically that was it, the episode never really did deliver. I was waiting patiently for the second half to really catch my attention but it didn’t. I felt like they just made up some random story about some deadly gas just to give Juliet something to do on the island while they told us this lame back story about her love life. Jack needs to lay off Juliet, we already know he is in “love” with Kate from the flash-forward so why is he even messing with Juliet? Not cool. Even though the ending wasn’t really a “cliff-hanger” it was still funny to see Ben acting like he is everyone’s friend now. It made me laugh. All-in-all the episode was pretty lame and I am very disappointed as watching Lost is one of the highlights of my week and this one just didn’t do anything for me. SCORE: 5.0/10
Kurt’s View:
YAY! We are back on the island! I agree its kinda disappointing to see the more minor characters being the focus of an episode but I got a kick out of seeing Ben being happy, and Juliet’s secret boyfriends backstory tying into season 1. I don’t mind Juliette, I just can’t figure her out enough to say if she’s actually good or not. I will say this though, with the person that we’ve learned Kate to be- I would rather see Jack with Juliette. With the games she plays, Sawyer can have Kate. I still can’t stand any of the new characters except for Daniel. What truly saved this episode for me was being on the island. The writing of this episode was particularly rough too (“…she’s my wife”?) I’m waiting for them to reveal that they are genetically engineering dinosaurs and plan on opening a theme park
In all honesty NOTHING has happened this season and based on the past 2 weeks the show was going down the drain quick. I hope the last couple episodes that they are shooting now after the strike are better then these that were done before the strike. (They have to be, they are condensing the story arc by a few episodes to meet the season finale)
Was this episode great? No, but it was a turn back in the right direction. (I have no intention of ever watching ‘The Constant’ again, when the dvd comes out I will skip that episode) I score this episode higher than the last two because it made me forget about everything related to the freighter and time travel. SCORE: 7/10
*Make sure you vote on the poll located in the right sidebar so we can settle this conflict of opinions once and for all.
I was keeping my eye on Army of Two ever since it received all of the bad feedback from the media. The developers decided to delay the game and do all they could to make it worth buying. Delays bother me but when a game that was looking to be crap comes back with some pretty good reviews then it was well worth the wait. I always had it in the back of my mind that I would pick this title up and try and play it with my wife. I was going to put it off for a while since Smash Bros, R6V2, and Hot Shots 5 are all coming out this month, but I watched the video review at IGN and was instantly drawn in by the visuals. I ended up making a late night run to go and get it at the local Gamestop. Once I got back I had to convince my wife to sit down and play it with me. First of all I was really impressed with the visuals. This is definitely a beautiful game. I was also blown away by the cut scenes. They looked absolutely gorgeous. Overall the game is fun, it’s a little more complicated than what Daria is used to but she managed. I like how we actually have to work together unlike most co-op games. It’s taking time to get used to the “aggro” system but I think we’ll get the hang of it soon. It was getting late and I was ready to stop and my wife said “let’s keep going” so I think she agrees with me that it’s a fun game. Even though you get the whole screen when you play over live I think playing split-screen is more convenient because it’s a lot easier to use teamwork without having to talk over the mic. Just getting out of Lost: Via Domus, Army of Two is feeling worth the $60 and I am happy I picked it up. If you have one person that you enjoy playing games with then I suggest looking into this one. Check back later for Daria and I’s full thoughts on Army of Two after we finish it.
Let me say this upfront. I don’t watch television. Yes, I watch tv shows on dvd as seasons, but I do not actively engage in watching television. I used to have a nice cable package, but like my home phone, it was a waste of $ and I now have the basic 22 channel setup with the major networks. Here is how little I watch tv- my friends are laughing at me because for the first time since watching the X-Files in Jr. High I am keeping current with the short run of LOST after catching up on the dvd releases. Anyhow- that’s just the setup for my rant, lol.
Coming out of the shower having left the tv on from the news I caught a few minutes of a show called ‘The Moment of Truth’ on FOX. (It’s a shame what the writer’s strike has caused to an already creatively barren tv landscape.) The show places a contestant with friends and family and are asked questions where honesty is rewarded with cash. You can bail out between questions if you want, but if you lie you lose it all- game over. The family can stop a question from being answered by tagging a buzzer as well. These questions pull no punches, are incredibly personal, and delve into areas that should remain secret. So that night I saw a woman admit that she was still in love with an ex on her wedding day, admit that she thinks she should have been married to someone else, and admitted to engaging in some ‘extracurricular activities’ with someone other than her husband after they were married. Then they asked her if she thought she was a good person to which she responded ‘yes.’ Well, she apparently isn’t and lost the $125,000 she had accumulated by ruining her marriage and relationships in her family. It’s a sad state of affairs, welcome to America. Those 5 minutes I watched reminded me why I don’t watch tv.
The American public rewards networks with ratings for airing trash where we are ‘entertained’ by watching people potentially ruin their lives, the lives of others, and act immoral? Yep. We’ve become a youtube happy voyeuristic society and I can’t imagine it getting any better. It’s scary to imagine what the next level of ‘reality tv’ might become.
Just another reason on a long list of why I think I should have lived in another era. Disagree? Come fight me in the forum! :End Rant:
Last night I finished Lost: Via Domus. I didn’t want to believe it when I heard it was a 4-6 hour game but it pretty much is. I guess if you really want to check everything out then it might take you 8 hours at most. LVD is definitely not a game for anyone who hasn’t watched the show as it is absolutely filled with inside jokes and lines from the show. I felt like they just threw each characters best line from all the seasons into their dialogue even if it wasn’t relevant. Even though I was disappointed that not all of the characters were voiced by the actual characters themselves it was still funny to hear someone trying to impersonate them. I do have to admit it would have felt a lot better had their voices been the real characters. The graphics looked good, the beach was really cool to see from that perspective and they had the hatch down to a T. That was probably my favorite part, just chilling in the hatch. Was it just me or did everyone really come of as rude. Jack had an annoying voice which reminded me of the little boy with glasses in Polar Express and that made it hard to believe he was actually the leader. Locke really got on my nerves with the “Brand Spanking New” line that he pulled half way through the game. He never really would have said that in the show. I feel bad for anyone who has never watched the show and may watch someone play this, it would probably make them hate the show, but us fans can just laugh at it because we know how it really is. I was also really freaked out by Desmond. He kept doing the same exact movements with his head over and over through our whole conversation which made him look like a creepy robot. It was like they had his movements on a loop. Check it out if you missed it. He is in the jungle on your way to the hatch for the first time. Overall I just felt like the game was moving at too fast of a pace. One minute we crashed the next minute Jin and Michael were on a raft trying to get home and the hatch was blown open. I only shot about 3 bullets the whole game and luckily the cave was only a short segment of the game. I didn’t enjoy that. The way they handled flashbacks kind of reminded me of XIII and also the sound from the circuit boards seemed like it was taken straight out of BioShock. It was nice to have the powerful music of Michael Giacchino in the background so that was a huge plus for the game because the music really makes the show good. Even though I was disappointed to hear the game was so short I don’t think I would have enjoyed a longer game at that quality. The last hour or so I just wanted it to end. In no way do I regret buying the game, I think that it is something all Lost fans/gamers should experience. There are some nice behind the scenes looks and a pretty sweet ending if you ask me, which was expected for a game based on Lost. The only thing I’m not happy about was the $60 price tag. This game is easily worth $30 to $40 at the most. I already see it on Amazon for PC for $20. It’s a short enough game that I probably wouldn’t have missed playing it on the 360 if I would have went for the PC deal. All-in-all I am happy they made the game and I recommend this game to any Lost fan. Just please don’t buy it at full price.
One of my favorite actors of all time is Will Ferrell but lately I haven’t been digging his characters. I passed on Semi-Pro and have been waiting patiently for another “Frank the Tank” style character like the days of “Old School.” Well, I think “Step Brothers” may have been what I was looking for. Check out the trailer to see what I mean.
Last nights episode of Jericho was interesting just like the previous one. It’s hard for me to give a nice in-depth review of the show as it is easily forgotten the next day. But there were a few moments in this episode that really stood out to me. First off is when Dale Turner gets taken in by Jennings and Rall. We can clearly see that J&R is using this national crisis to their benefit, acting as if they are law enforcement now. Obviously we know that Goetz is using the $10,000 either to get Mimi fired or to use it for his own evil plans. I also like the fact that Hawkins is slowly preparing Col. Hoffman to hear the truth about the government conspiracy and maybe he will even tell him about the bomb, who knows. Of course the part of the show that really caught me off guard was when Bonnie pulled out the shotgun and started blowing holes through all the J&R guys. It was very intense. They sure deserved it for trying to cause trouble for no reason. I was surprised to see that Bonnie actually died. I guess it was best she did because she didn’t really have proof to show that she was doing it out of self-defense. Plus J&R would have had her in prison within the next hour anyways. I’m glad that they threw that intense moment in there at the end because now I am siked to see what happens next week. It wasn’t exactly a cliff-hanger but it was close enough. You can watch the full episode here. SCORE: 8.7/10
I’ve added two more page tabs for you guys. The “Portal” tab is the flash version of Portal and the “DTD” tab is the game “Desktop Tower Defense” which is definitely worth trying out. Enjoy!!
After PixelJunk Racers and my personal favorite, PixelJunk Monsters, Q Games has announced PixelJunk Eden it’s third title. After playing the last two PJ games I have grown to trust that Q Games will deliver something worth buying. No release dates have been announced for Eden but after counting the months between PJR and PJM I am guessing this one may come out in April or May.
New Commenting System by Intense Debate
March 12, 2008Tags:comments, intense debate, profiles
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